The present invention relates to formation of groups of individuals and more particularly to the formation of groups of individuals having shared special interests.
Conferences are often attended by relatively large groups of individuals who know little in advance about the other individuals who attending the same conference. Even where the primary purpose of the conference may be to provide one or more major presentations to the entire group attending the conference, conference organizers often wish to organize subgroups of individuals having a shared special interest in a particular topic. Such subgroups are known by different names, such as special interests groups, affinity groups or birds-of-a-feather groups, and make it easier for each individual to interact on a face-to-face level with a smaller group of individuals, each sharing or contributing knowledge or insights on a particular topic while benefiting from knowledge or insights received from other individuals in the same smaller group.
There are no limits on the topics around which conference organizers may wish to organize special interest groups. If the major presentations to be made at the conference pertain to a particular major topic (for example, computer network technology), the conference organizers may wish to organize special interest groups for specific subtopics within the major topic (for example, user security concerns, advances in cloud computing, the role of open source code, etc.).
The conference organizers may even wish to organize special interest groups around topics that have nothing to do with the primary topic of the conference as way of providing temporary stimulating diversions for the conference attendees. For example, where the major topic of the conference is a particularly serious topic, the conference organizers may wish to organize special interest groups for “lighter” topics, such as videogaming, sports, cooking, etc.
The problem facing conference organizers is that they seldom know enough about the individuals who will be attending the conference to know what special interests each individual may have and whether the individual is interesting in talking to others that may have the same special interests.